Addiction and Mental illness can take hold of anyone but it DOES NOT have to define who you are

Megan Racer is our Business Development Representative at Camelback Recovery. She also has quite a story. She’s been sober for almost four years now, but she not only has a past of addiction, but she ended up going to prison. Megan shares her story from her family life and how she was a great student in school to being a people pleaser and being involved with other addicted individuals that eventually led to her addiction. 

Her downward spiral began when she started doing drugs, leading to her dropping out of school and losing custody of her daughter. Then she got sober just long enough to have a son. Then she went back to drugs and was arrested and federally indicted on drug trafficking charges This was the rock bottom that eventually led to her recovery from rehab, prison, a halfway house, and back home again. She is now living her dreams with her kids, and she gets to help others in the process. Megan has an inspiring story of how no matter how bad things get, there can be hope on the other side.

[03:15] Megan believes that everything she's been through has served a purpose. [05:07] In the 12-step program, we aren't attached to other people's results.  [05:58] Megan was born in Phoenix AZ. There were mental health issues in her household growing up. There wasn't a lot of connection, except for with her Grandma. [10:54] She drank in high school. Her first drink was in eighth grade. She blacked out as a freshman.  [13:36] In college, she met her new boyfriend at the gym. He was the catalyst for her finding drugs.  [14:33] She came home, and her boyfriend had a bunch of coke on the table. She liked the coke and wanted more. [17:03] She then tried prescription opiate painkillers. [19:12] Eventually, things took a weird turn. She was doing a lot of drugs and her boyfriend was narcissistic and had violent outbursts. [21:16] She broke up with him, but that's when her addiction really took hold.  [22:33] Her new boyfriend was addicted to heroin. [23:13] She met her children's father at a wedding. He had a lot of connections for getting drugs.  [26:15] Megan never worked on her mental health issues which wasn't helpful with the addiction issues.  [26:51] She quit drugs and had her daughter. Then she tried heroin. It was on a whole new level, and she didn't stop for the next two years.  [30:01] Her daughter ended up being placed in the custody of her aunt. Megan went to detox and entered a program.  [31:21] She hooked up with her ex and got pregnant with her son.  [33:18] She wanted the kids' father to be in their lives.  [35:20] They started doing heroin for years.  [36:53] Megan went to Mexico and ended up being pulled over with drugs in the car. Her kids were with her. [41:29] She went to treatment for 4 months and then was sentenced to 30 months in prison.  [43:59] She was given an amazing opportunity to do treatment while she was locked up. She finally got the therapy she needed.  [45:47] She was going to do anything and everything to make the pain stop. She wanted to be proud of herself and she wanted her kids to be proud of her. [48:51] Treatment helped her realize that she can connect with all people. She just needed to do it.  [54:08] She's now being 100% authentic and making sure that she is around people that are good to be around. [55:39] People in your circle need to be aligned with your values.  [01:00:31] There are so many services and assets available to help you and your kids.  [01:03:26] Her son has autism which just means he thinks in a different way. Megan can't conform to other people's standards.  [01:04:39] She has her kids back in her life. She just got off of probation. She’s supporting her kids and things are going well. [01:08:15] Everyone in the family is in therapy. They are working through the connection piece. [01:09:59] Megan is doing business development at Camelback Recovery. She gets to see available programs and see if they really have the patient's best interest at heart. [01:11:54] Camelback Recovery is like a family that she wants to be a part of.  [01:13:32] A good fit would be people who want to look at the mental health side as well as the substance side of recovery. 

Links mentioned in this episode:

Camelback Recovery I Love Being Sober YouTube [email protected] Megan Racer Facebook Megan Racer LinkedIn Megan Racer Instagram